"When I first saw Jazz on a Summer's Day in the early '90s, the intimate, roving camerawork looked so fresh and vital I thought the film could've been made the year I was watching it. It still looks as though it could've been made today. The camera gets right up against the performers – we see the sweat, the ecstasy of performance. Anita O'Day takes the stage for a couple of songs, and the movement of her white-gloved hands is mesmerizing. Sal Salvador seems to be having an out-of-body experience when playing guitar alongside Sonny Stitt. (...) The movie is hip and artful; there's a slight aesthetic chill attached to that, at times we get the sense that Stern is focusing on this person or that because compositionally it pleases him.(...) Music is everywhere, inescapable, and the Newport seen in the film looks like some blissful seaside resort out of "M. Hulot's Holiday," only without Hulot and with a who's who of jazz greats. It's a deeply pleasurable experience."